Analysis

With Europe in crisis, and Turkish undergoing deep changes, the European
Social forum was merely business as usual, with a declining number of
participants. The summary of the forum merely made reference to the
European-wide day of action on 29 September, rather than discussing and
developing a strategy for the movement.

On 3 July, thousands of demonstrators noisily streamed through the
centre of Istanbul, to Taksim square. A combative block of UPS workers,
along with their union, Tumtis, demanded their re-instatement. Their
multi-national company sacked them for organising in a trade union.
Flags of public sector union, Kesk, were flying. The Turkish left had a
significant presence. Red Banners, along with many placards stopped the
traffic. Kurdish activists had their own block, the only block which was
brutally surrounded by police. Palestinian flags demonstrated solidarity
with the people of Gaza. Trade unionists, left organisations and
activists from movements all over the world demonstrated “we won’t pay
for the capitalist crisis!”.

This was the climax of the 6th European social forum, which took place
between 1 and 4 July. But this was also the exception. The discussions
and mood were not dominated by the increase of struggle, with 5 general
strikes in Greece, mass struggles in Spain, Italy and Portugal and the
Tekel workers’ struggle in turkey itself. The discussions had by less
than 5,000 participants, who came together in Istanbul’s technical
university in small discussion circles, and a few bigger meetings (with
up to 300 attending) followed along the same lines as in previous social
forums, i.e behind the pace of events.

29 September 2010 – European-wide protest

The ESF’s final decaration states: “In the context of a global crisis
and faced with the EU’s, the government’s and the IMF´s offensive to
impose austerity and social regression policies, the social movements
which have gathered in the ESF in Istanbul issue a call to act together
in Europe. [...] It is urgent to build, on the long term, a convergent
struggle in Europe, which brings together social movements, trade
unions, associations, organisations, and citizen networks. This is why
we issue a call for a first step on the way to developing mobilisation
across Europe, on the 29th of September and the surrounding days. “

The 29 September, which was called by the ETUC (European Trade Union
Congress), has the potential to develop as a day of protest in all of
Europe. Trade unions in Spain plan a general strike. There has also been
discussion about similar actions in Greece and Portugal. But the ESF in
Istanbul went no further than merely repeating the ETUC’s vague call for
action.

Representatives of NGOs and union officials dominated the ESF. The main
emphasis of the discussion was on how the financial system of capitalism
should be changed. They did not discuss the strategy: how to increase
resistance, how to unite the struggles of workers in different countries
and how to overcome the brake of the trade union leaders on struggle in
the different countries.

Hugo Braun, from Attac, said that the ESF is an “expression of the of
the strong desire for joint European-wide resistance and concrete
action” – a desire which was not satisfied. Almost everyone realised
this, and participants were generally disappointed. Many comments about
the bad organisation of the ESF, only obscured the event’s real
political weaknesses.

Turkey and Kurdistan

The struggle of the Tekel workers was mentioned a lot at the ESF. But
the experiences and developments of the Turkish workers’ movement were
not really felt by the ESF. The Turkish left did not attend in large
numbers; trade unions were only represented by officials, with very few
rank-and-file activists finding their way to the technical university.
Neither the re-awakening of the Turkish workers’ movement, with hundreds
of thousands on Taksim square on 1 May for the first time in 33 years,
nor capitalism’s attempts to re-create a political opposition to the
capitalist AKP party, nor the discussions about a constitutional
referendum, featured at the ESF.

Many sessions at the ESF dealt with the situation facing the Palestinian
people, following the attack on the Gaza aid flotilla. Speakers quite
correctly criticised the hypocrisy of the Turkish regime, which cries
crocodile tears over the national oppression of the Palestinians but
continues to oppress the Kurds. |Despite the fact that the repression of
the Kurdish people was dealt with more, the ESF’s final declaration
expresses nothing more than “that we are for a political resolution of
the Kurdish issue”.

Which way forward?

Given the deep crisis of capitalism, international resistance is
necessary. The debate on the socialist alternative to the profit-driven
system and how to achieve it, could benefit a lot from an international
forum, with strong representation from the trade union movement and the
newly-formed forces of the left, such as Die Linke or Syriza (who were
well represented at the ESF). Decisive forces involved in the ESF
dismissed the idea of developing from the social forum movement, a
movement to change the social system. Jessica Heyser, from the German
youth TUC (DGB youth) said “these expectations would ask too much of the
forum today”.

If this view continues to dominate, more and more activists will say
goodbye to the ESF. In Malmo 2 years ago, 6,000 attended – a low point
at the time. This trajectory could continue, unless the new developing
struggles taking place, for example, around 29 September shakes up and
transforms the forces involved in the ESF in 2012.